Asking powerful questions

A drive to derail special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign was taken up by a powerful federal appeals court Thursday as a three-judge panel heard arguments that the special prosecutor’s appointment last year was legally flawed and unconstitutional. The judges heard an appeal from a former aide to Trump adviser Roger Stone, Andrew Miller, who resisted a grand jury subpoena in order to create a legal vehicle to challenge Mueller’s authority to continue his year-and-a-half long probe into alleged collusion between the Trump political operation and Russia during the 2016 presidential race.Story Continued Below The arguments Thursday marked the first public outing for members of the special counsel’s team since Democrats won future control of the House in the November midterms and Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and gave the investigators a new boss: acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker. Before the lawyers said a word, the senior … [Read more...] about Mueller power questioned in first post-Sessions court hearing

We asked for questions and you came through.Aaron McFarling and I are back for a podcast largely powered by you, the listener. We start off talking about the NFL Draft and where the Hokies, most prominently linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, might end up going. Then we turn things over to some listener questions, with topics ranging from how strained the relationship is with some football alumni to Hendon Hooker's odds of sticking around at quarterback to if there'll ever be a future NCAA football video game.Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.Apologies in advance for the sound quality during the middle portion of this pod. We get a little echo-y again for some reason. It gets resolved for the last third, though.No mailbag this week because I'll be focused on the draft. We'll pick that up again next week.This podcast will make its way to our iTunes feed shortly. And if you're having trouble with the embedded player below, you can listen to it directly on … [Read more...] about Hokies podcast, Ep. 145: Where will Tremaine Edmunds go in the NFL Draft? Plus tons of listener questions

PRIME Minister's Questions is the weekly grilling of the PM by MPs in the House of Commons. Here's the lowdown on the parliamentary tradition. What day and time is Prime Minister's Question Time? Prime Minister's Questions is held every Wednesday at noon while the House of Commons is sitting. During this time the PM will spend around half an hour answering questions from MPs. The first formalised structure of PMQs was two 15 minute sessions on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. This was changed by Tony Blair shortly after he took office in 1997 to one half hour session on Wednesdays. Why do MPs stand up for PMQs? It’s to attract the speaker’s attention as they hope to ask a question. Many of the questions have been pre-booked, but there are still supplementary slots up for grabs. The first question is normally asked by a government MP who will ask the PM if "she/he will list his/her engagements for the day?" That is usually met with the response: "This morning I had … [Read more...] about What time is PMQs today, why do MPs stand up for Prime Minister’s Questions and is there a live stream?

President Donald Trump “certainly believes he has the power” to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday, a day after the president left the door open to the possibility. After the FBI raided properties linked to the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday, apparently on a referral from Mueller, Trump blasted the Russia probe. Regarding firing Mueller, he told reporters: “We’ll see what happens." Story Continued Below On Tuesday, Sanders was pressed at the White House press briefing on whether Trump could dismiss Mueller directly or if he would have to instruct Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the federal probe into Russian election meddling and any ties to Trump campaign officials, to do it. "I know a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice, said he has the power to do so," Sanders said. "We've been advised that … [Read more...] about White House: Trump ‘certainly believes he has the power’ to fire Mueller